


Recovery

by PerfectlyHopeless



Category: Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: Amputation, F/M, Fluff, Trespasser DLC
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-09
Updated: 2018-02-09
Packaged: 2019-03-15 19:01:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,783
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13619697
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PerfectlyHopeless/pseuds/PerfectlyHopeless
Summary: She was half dead when she came back to them, and then she had to ask him to do the unthinkable.





	Recovery

**Author's Note:**

> Hello friends! Welcome to my canon, where shit went down between the scenes

* * *

 

By the time she returned to them, she was half dead. The Anchor had swallowed up her arm almost to her shoulder, draining the life from her with each passing moment. She was soaked through with her own sweat as the pain tried to take her, Nan stumbling through the mirror and practically collapsing before her closest friends.

She let out a cry of pain as the Anchor flared again. The Iron Bull looked on her with horror in his eyes, going to her side.

“Kadan…” he breathed, calling her his heart even now when it could be so much easier to let her go.

Nan struggled to speak, gritting her teeth so hard it felt as though she'd crush her own jaw. “Aah, I-I… c-cut it off.”

Sera’s eyes went wide, knowing the answer but not wanting to believe it. “Cut what off!?”

Nan choked on another cry of pain, the sound coming out strangled as she keeled forward. Bull held her upright, helping her be strong. “My arm. Th-the Anchor, I have to live. I have to stop him. Solas.”

Sera and Dorian both looked at the Bull, the warrior the only one capable of doing what Nan asked. He seemed in shock.

“Nan, I…” he began tentatively.

“ _Sathan, ma Vhenan,_ ” she begged, her copper eyes staring up at him desperately “Please. Th… There isn't time.”

As though to emphasize her point the Anchor flared again, Nan crying out in agony as her hand grew closer to killing her.

His breathing was shaky and he could feel himself tremble with anxiety. He couldn't lose her, not after all that they'd been through. If saving her life meant cutting off her arm, he'd do it.

“Alright,” he finally agreed.

None of them had ever done anything like this before, but they didn't have time to find someone who could help. Sera went to work on the skirt of Nan’s coat with an arrow, cutting off the fabric to make a tourniquet and slicing a thick leather strap to give Nan something to bite into. Dorian helped Nan remove the metal plates that covered her left arm, revealing blackened flesh with deep tendrils of green Fade magic. The tendrils stretched up towards her shoulder, reaching for her heart, but the black stopped at her elbow, fading to grey and pale flesh. Dorian soothed her as best he could as they helped her to a slab of rock. Tears were streaking down her deathly pale face, Nan looking as though she had mere moments left. Dorian kept her upright while Sera paced behind them, biting at her gloves to not speak. Her swears would only make them more nervous.

Bull looked from his axe to Nan’s arm. It would be quick, one heavy swing would be all it took to remove the poison that was killing the woman he loved. Then Dorian would sear her arm with a fire spell, cauterize the wound to hopefully keep her alive while they took her barely breathing body back to the Palace.

Nan had her eyes closed, holding the leather strap in her sword hand as she mumbled prayers in elvish. Despite everything that they'd seen, despite her crumbling faith, old habits still died hard.

“Are you ready, Kadan?” Bull asked.

She nodded feverishly, keeping her eyes closed as she managed a shaky, “Yes.”

Bull lifted his axe, looking down at Nan as she put the strap in her mouth, already biting hard while Dorian supported her and held her hand.

“One,” the Iron Bull began, mostly for himself as he reminded himself that she was asking him to do this. That permission had been granted. He positioned the blade so it would strike just above her elbow, where the black faded to grey. “Two.”

Sera cringed and turned away, hiding her face in her hands as she squirmed uncomfortably. “I can't look.”

Bull inhaled deeply, breathing out “Three” as he let the blade fall.

It was too easy to cleave straight through Nan’s thinned and frail arm, the charred black appendage settling on the slab and withering while Nan let out an almost primal scream, tears falling down her cheeks as she sobbed at the white-hot pain that shot up her shoulder, then a duller heat as Dorian burned what was now a stump. Sera retched from the opposite side of the space while Nan’s sobs grew weaker and she fainted. Dorian supported her and Bull hurried to kneel beside them, taking his heart into his arms and lifting her up delicately. She seemed so small but she’d never been stronger.

The Anchor's tendrils lost their green glow the moment the Mark was cut away, leaving behind deep lightning-like scars in Nan’s pale flesh. The magic that was killing her couldn't hurt her any longer. They'd been told it could only be removed when she died. No one ever said anything about cutting it off. Bull would have found the mundane solution to a magical problem more amusing if he wasn't so focused on carrying the now disarmed Nan back to safety.

She stirred as they trekked back, her stump of an arm moving as though she were trying to clutch his harness. He could only make out bits of her incoherent muttering. Most of it was elvish, only a smattering of common. There were a few words he recognized. _Vhenan,_ for one. But the rest was gibberish to his untrained ears.

The guards were startled the moment that the team returned, Nan’s other friends and associates waiting for them. Vivienne immediately set to work with her healing magic while an apothecary and medics were sent for. Nan was taken to a clean guest room in the palace. She fell in and out of consciousness countless times over the following few days while she was set upon by those trying to keep her alive. Varric and Cassandra were reminded of when the Breach opened in the sky, Nan’s first encounter with the rifts. This was far worse. Now they were watching with bated breath as their dear friend and fearless leader fought off death for days.

After a week she became far more stable, the medics only coming in a couple of times a day. She didn't do much but sleep, the Iron Bull setting a chair by the bed and refusing to leave her side, taking care of her in whatever ways he could. In the rare moments when she was deliriously awake, she'd stare at him dreamily and mutter to herself in elvish. He found himself holding her good hand whenever possible, warming her cold fingers with his warm palms and placing tender kisses to her knuckles. He slept by her side every night, just to be there if something went wrong.

By whatever continuous miracle that had kept Nan alive since she was a child, it only took her a couple more days to finally begin to recover. She was stable, eating and drinking on her own, smiling… The Iron Bull was particularly happy about the last one. He continued to remain by her side through it all, smiling softly and combing through her hair with his fingers that night as she tried to go to sleep. The room was warm, dimly lit by the fireplace on the opposite wall, a very homey feeling surrounding the two.

Nan hummed her approval as she nuzzled into his touch like a cat. “ _Ma Vhenan,_ ” she started lazily.

He smiled at his heart, tracing the lines of her vallaslin with his fingertips. “Kadan.”

Nan smiled at this, humming happily as she began to reach for him, then realized she used the wrong arm. She swallowed at this, sobering. “I’m sorry,” she said softly.

His brows pinched in the middle as he brushed strands of her brown hair away from her face. “For what?”

“I’m sorry that I had to ask this of you,” she said, glancing down at her left arm and the thick wrappings that were still around the end. “I wish I’d not put you in that position.”

Bull looked at her fondly, taking her good hand in his. “Don’t worry about that, Nan,” he said. “You’re alive. That’s all I care about.”

She closed her fist around his fingers, watching as he leaned forward to kiss her knuckles. Her eyes grew heavy and she yawned, the ghost of her left hand moving to cover her mouth like it used to. Nan looked up at him with those large copper eyes. “Can you fit on the bed?”

Bull looked it over. It wasn't much different in size from the bed they'd often shared back in Skyhold. If they pressed together they'd fit comfortably, which was likely why Nan had asked.

“You want me to sleep with you?”

“Well, I'd rather have sex, but honestly I don't think I'd make it far in this state,” she joked, Bull chuckling lightly at this.

“You're making my job harder, Kadan,” he teased. “Gonna have to learn how to tie you up again.”

Nan scooted over on the bed as she smiled. “Somehow, I'm sure you'll manage. Now get over here.”

Bull raised a brow at this, a playful smirk on his face. “Nan?”

“ _P_ _lease_ ,” she said, holding back the urge to giggle over their little routine. Even if it wasn't one of their acts, it was still fun to play with each other.

“That's more like it,” he said, standing up and kicking his boots off. Nan beamed up at him as he moved beside her under the covers. She quickly curled up against him, his body doing more to warm her than the fire had. A smile touched her face as she propped herself up over him. He reached to cradle her cheek with his hand, brushing his thumb across her splotchy pale skin.

“You know something?” she began, nuzzling into his touch.

“What's that?” he asked, just looking at her and feeling nothing but relief that she was getting back to normal.

Nan smiled, meeting the gaze of his pale green eye. “I love you.”

He smiled again, feeling warm. He knew of Nan’s tense relationship with romance and how hard it had been to process those feelings. His own relationship with the word had taken becoming Tal’Vashoth to find meaning in it, though he had no regrets.

Bull moved to kiss Nan, their first real kiss since before the chaos. She relaxed against him, savoring the moment until he broke it off. “I love you too.”

She cuddled up against his bare chest, forever approving of his lack of shirts. The rest of the world could wait. This moment was just for them.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you enjoyed it, thanks for reading!
> 
> If you're so inclined please leave a comm pent to let me know how I'm doing. Constructive criticism is more than welcome!


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